Bringing the Text to Life
The Secret of the Bristlecone Pine Isaiah 55:10-13
The Methuselah Tree, a bristlecone pine that popped up before the Pyramids and has now lived more than 46 centuries, offers some survival strategies that can help the church to grow in even the harshest of conditions.
The marathon mentality.
It's what you discover as you get older, according to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. He observes that when you're young, deferring gratification is not a common skill. But as you age, "you get better at the marathon mentality."
If this is true, Methuselah must have had the ultra-marathon mentality. After all, he lived a record 969 years, according to Genesis (5:27).
Still, the biblical Methuselah was a mere babe compared to the tree named after him, a bristlecone pine that is now more than 46 centuries old. The "Methuselah Tree," part of California's Inyo National Forest, was a seedling way back before the Egyptian Pyramids went up -- and it's still alive today.
What's its secret? Is it the marathon mentality? Or something else?
The conditions under which the Methuselah Tree has accomplished this extraordinary feat are surprising. At least they were to Robert Mohlenbrock.
A few years ago, this professor of botany visited the Ancient Bristlecone Pine...